LISBON: A judge placed former Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates under formal investigation on charges of tax evasion, corruption and money laundering and remanded him to jail in the southeast of the country.

His attorney Joao Araujo branded the decision “deeply unjust and unjustified” and vowed to appeal.

Socrates was prime minister from 2005 to 2011

The detention of Portugal’s former prime minister on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering has set off a new political earthquake in a country already rocked by high-level scandal.

Socrates, 57, has been held since his shock arrest at Lisbon airport on Friday, a first for a former leader of Portugal since its military dictatorship ended in 1974.

Under “provisional detention”, Socrates can be held for up to a year because his case is of “extreme complexity”, although the investigating magistrate must re-examine his situation every three months.

Businessman Carlos Santos Silva and Socrates’s chauffeur Joao Perna were also being held, while lawyer Goncalo Trindade Ferreira was freed on bail.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014